


Shooting Stars

by Magestorrow



Category: Bartimaeus - Jonathan Stroud, Stargate - All Media Types
Genre: Also Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, in which Vala makes a friend that she desperately needs, while getting a few good books out of it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 09:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14353089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magestorrow/pseuds/Magestorrow
Summary: Vala loves reading. She loves the escape it provided, and how the stories in between the pages have become her only home. When she's on one of her rare visits to a bookstore, Vala makes a discovery: Leonardo Cartwright, an awkward young explorer and fellow bookworm. As they continue to meet during their excursions across the galaxy, a friendship begins to blossom between the two. There's just one little issue - Vala still hasn't told him what she does for a living. And she's certainly not going to do it soon.Elsewhere in the galaxy, a Goa'uld is on the rise. Maahes, a son of Ra, had been presumed dead when he disappeared millennia. But after resurfacing several years ago, the Scarlet Lord is only just becoming a threat. The alliances he forges between the remaining Goa'uld have put the freedom won by their defeat. And Maahes wants to form an alliance with Qetesh.Which, seeing that only Qetesh's host Vala is alive, might pose some problems.(No knowledge of the Bartimaeus Trilogy is needed to read this!)





	Shooting Stars

She rarely ventured into bookstores these days. Her childhood hadn't been easy, but she had free time that the responsibilities of adulthood no longer allowed. Visiting a bookstore was a treat. Gods forbid anyone discovered her little secret; there wasn't anything particularly respectful about being a lover of literature in the circles she was a part of. But when the company of the dishonest failed her, which was a frequent occurrence, curling up with a good book in an inn on some obscure little world was exactly what the doctor ordered.

That prompted an interesting little problem. She needed to find a bookstore on a world where her reputation hadn't been tarnished, one that would let her walk in and not keep their eyes on her the entire time. If there was any place that she would never steal from, it would be a bookstore. The writers of those stories could certainly use the money, and she'd gladly contribute to the success of the shops she frequented.

Sometimes, she would just explore. Other times she had a certain type of book in mind. Romances were perhaps her favorite. Not for the love itself, but for the intimate connections between the characters. She could spend hours reading about the blossoming relationships if given the chance to. Sometimes she'd even go back and purchase more books by the same author, if she stayed on that same planet. 

She may have been a drifter, but books were her home.

**~v~**

It had been a hard day. She had narrowly escaped a deal that had gone sour, and had accidentally gone to a world where she was a wanted criminal. If she was being honest with herself, it had been a hard couple of months. She had known that she needed a break, but today was the last straw. She'd return to that last bookstore she visited and see the new releases. There was never many in any of the stores that she visited, but the trip would be worth it. 

She got together her meager belongings, went through the stargate and found herself a room at the nearby inn. 

The inn had running water – a blessing and a major improvement from the last places she had stayed at – and she quickly threw off her clothes to take a hot shower. The water felt absolutely wonderful running down her bare skin. Closing her eyes, she could almost imagine that she was washing away more than blood and dirt and grit.

When she left the shower, she slipped into the outfit she loved yet had only worn once: a cute little black crop top, leather jacket, black pants and short black boots. She had spent a fortune on it with the intention of wearing it on special occasions. What those occasions would be were a mystery even now, but this certainly qualified. She threw her hair into two low ponytails.

She grabbed a simple little pack to put her purchases in and left the inn. It had been a beautiful day. Even though the sun was just beginning to set, countless people walked throughout the streets. Some cast her intrigued glances, as her attire stood out just a little, but most kept to themselves. They were a planet that thrived on tourism. 

She struggled to recall the exact location of the bookstore, but it didn't take too long to find it. There it was, just on the horizon – a bookstore that must have been there for centuries. She hurried on towards it. Few appreciated the comfort of a good book, so she wasn't surprised to see that only a handful of people were coming from its direction.

The bell chimed as she carefully pushed open the door to the shop. The shopkeeper, a man in his late sixties, continued to read his book from behind the counter. She took the beauty of the place in with awe. The actual architecture of the shop was ancient, but had somehow withstood the test of time. Shelves lined every wall and every free space in the store. She let out a heavenly sigh. This must have been what paradise looked like.

She quickly scouted out the romance genre. It had moved since the last time she was here, but it was still near the front of the store. She carefully made her way over to it. Rushing in any sort of establishment that contained books was a heinous act. She was allowed to be excited, but running would disrupt the sacred peace.

She scanned the titles. A smile briefly flickered across her face when she saw the book she had bought last time, but then she had returned to her search. She caught sight of an intriguing book out of the corner of her eye; it had a beautiful golden engraving of a flower on its cover. She reached a hand out to grab onto the copy closest to her.

But then someone else tried grabbing the book.

She looked over at the other shopper, and her breath momentarily caught in her throat. He was undoubtedly handsome. In fact, he was _incredibly_ handsome. Dark eyes. Windswept black hair. Just a bit of stubble on his chin. Color flushed to his cheeks, and he abruptly withdrew his hand from the novel.

“I'm so sorry,” he hurriedly apologized. “I didn't notice you.”

She studied him. It would have been more fitting to find him in a thief's den than a bookstore. His clothes were completely black. Black shirt, black trench coat, black pants and tall black boots. Even the frames of his sunglasses, which were nestled in his hair, were black.

“It's alright,” she assured him with a wave of her hand.

He let out a sigh. “That's a relief.”

They stood in an awkward silence for the next moment.

She was the type of person who usually had something to contribute in a conversation, but talking in a place was like this was never the same as talking when she was out on a job. That involved a certain amount of harassment and verbal abuse. She had to be calmer here. More polite. Sometimes she struggled on determining where to draw the line, and this was one of those times. She suspected she would have kept staring at him if he had thrust his hand out in her direction.

“I'm Leo,” he said. He was smiling at her, and she was astonished to see that it went all the way up to his eyes. People never gave her smiles like that. “It's short for Leonardo. Leonardo Cartwright.” 

“Vala,” she replied. “Vala Mal Doran.”

She gave his hand a hearty little shake before turning her attention to the book she had just grabbed off of the shelf. After reading the blurb, she was certain that it was the right choice. 

She glanced at Leo. Seeing that he he was already looking at other books in the aisle, she guessed this wasn't his typical genre. “Do you usually read romance?” she questioned, carefully closing the book shut.

He looked back at her. “I'm not really into romance,” he admitted, taking a step in her direction. His voice was quiet and gentle. She quickly decided that she very much liked the sound of Leonardo Cartwright's voice. “I prefer fantasy and science-fiction, but...”

“But what?”

A gentle smile danced across his face. “There's a girl on another world that I always get books for – her planet doesn't really have many. I do it for other people, too.” 

“Ah,” she said. “So you're a librarian, then?”

“Sometimes.”

He absentmindedly reached a hand out to grab a copy of the book they had both tried getting. As he did so, she suddenly noticed that it wasn't a flower on the cover. It was a leaf of some sort, coming off of a thin vine. He held it close to his chest and began to head towards another one of the aisles. Then he paused, glanced over his shoulder and hesitantly continued. 

She fell into pace beside him. It was refreshing to talk to someone like Leo; he treated her like a normal person. No distrust. No hatred. And no lust. She was just a fellow reader. Nothing more, nothing less. Vala, the bookworm. She, quite frankly, preferred that to Vala, the thief – though the latter of the two was the only way a woman like her could survive out here.

“So, Leo,” she started, “what does a sometimes-librarian like yourself do for a living?”

He kept his eyes on the shelves, but she didn't get the same feeling that she got from other people when they did that. She supposed that he just wanted to find a good book. “I'm an explorer. I, um, explore. Sometimes I trade with other worlds, but I usually just chat with them and learn more about the galaxy. What about you?”

She dismissed the question with a wave of the hand. “It's not that important, and certainly not as intriguing as yours.” She studied the shelves. “Would you look at this cover? This _is_ the science-fiction genre, but that alien is absolutely atrocious. All those tentacles, and that tongue-”

“It is pretty disgusting,” he quietly said.

The comment must have hit closer to home, whatever it was for him, than she had expected. She wisely dropped the subject and went back to looking at the different covers. When she settled on one that looked interesting, she handed him her find. 

“You should remember by this,” Vala said with a wink.

The book seemed to be about a lonely little explorer who went on a quest to save the galaxy – there was always something fun about seeing herself in fiction, and he knew he must have felt the same. 

His face broke out into a grin. “I've been wanting to read this! I saw it the last time I was here, but I didn't have enough money on me – this is the perfect story for when I'm alone on my ship.” 

He hurriedly scanned the shelves. A second later, she found a new book nestled in between her arms. “If you're recommending me a book, I have to do the same. It's the golden rule of the librarians. Well, one of them, anyways.” He gave her a wave and started to head towards the counter. “I hope we meet here again, Vala.”

She looked down at the novel.

A boy and girl stood together on the cover. Holding each other's hands tightly in their pudgy little fingers, they kept their backs to her as they stared into the horizon. A shooting star passed by the painted figures. And standing there, watching Leo leave the bookstore, she found herself wishing upon a shooting star of her own.

_Please let me meet him again._


End file.
